Newton's Law of Cooling Model Documents

Main Document

The Newton's Law of Cooling model computes the temperature of an object of mass M as it is heated by a flame and cooled by the surrounding medium. The model assumes that the temperature T within the object is uniform. This lumped system approximation is valid if the rate of thermal energy transfer within the object is faster than the rate of thermal energy transfer at the surface. Users can select the mass or volume of the object and the type of material, and the model computes the temperature as a function of time. The model plots this temperature as a function of time as the user heats and cools the object. It is a supplemental simulation for an article by William Dittrich, Leonid Minkin, and Alexander S. Shapovalov "Measuring the Specific Heat of Metals by Cooling" in the The Physics Teacher 48 (8), 531-533 (2010).

The object heats and cools by exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding fluid by convection and this energy exchange is proportional to the difference between the object's surface temperature Ts and the temperature of the fluid Tf. Inside the object the thermal energy is transported by diffusion. The temperature inside is uniform if thermal energy transfer within the object is faster than thermal energy transfer at the surface.

The Newton's Law of Cooling model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_heat_NewtonLawOfCooling.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.

Supplemental Documents (4)

A customizable heating and cooling simulation that allows teachers to set the display parameters. The customized simulation is automatically saved with associated curricular in a new jar file that can be redistributed.